


Blonde Roast

by kaguneko (alittlecoco)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Fluff, M/M, fairly equal parts yumikuri & eruri, lipstick constellations im dying, soft soft angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 16:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11994054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlecoco/pseuds/kaguneko
Summary: Ymir & Levi are awkward friends who flirt painfully with some very cute blonds, basically.  Pretty equal Eruri and Yumikuri just fyi. I adore them both.





	Blonde Roast

**Author's Note:**

> I'd put this in my tumblr fills collection, but since it's long, I wanted to post it on its own. It was a fill for “You just give off the impression that you want to murder everyone you look at," as a thank you for 200 followers.
> 
> Ymir and Krista are college age, Levi is late 20s, Erwin is a lot less old than Ymir calls him.

 

 

It was five o’clock.  

  
Ymir knew it was five o’clock because Levi always got antsy.  He wiped the espresso machine down twice, refilled the grinders, and then cleaned off each of the tables with mechanic, jerky swipes.  He did this every day, like a tiny angry wind-up toy, and had since she started three weeks ago.

  
“What, you think he’s gonna stick around today?” Ymir watched Levi out of the corner of her eye while she made a latte.

  
Levi didn’t answer, just ducked his head very slightly and wiped down the register.  Ymir wondered if he knew the tips of his ears flushed pink.  She shrugged and put the latte on the end of the bar.

  
“Y’know,” she said, leaning on the bar next to Levi not particularly caring if the customer got their drink.  “If you smiled at the guy, you’d probably have his number already.  Amongst other things.”

  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Levi grumbled, glancing at the door, and then turning to find something else to wipe down.

  
“I’m talking about his dick,” Ymir said.  It was enormously satisfying to watch Levi sputter.  “Although, do you know how to smile?”

  
Levi whirled on her wielding the dishrag and his snarl like weapons at the same time the front door jingled.  His eyes widened.  

  
A rush of sympathetic adrenalin fizzled in Ymir’s stomach.  “Go get him, shorty,” she bent down to mutter in Levi’s ear, clapping him on the shoulder and taking the rag.

  
“Shut the fuck up,” he snarled under his breath.  He gripped the countertop too tight as he braced himself.

 

 

Ymir squeezed his shoulder before starting to walk away.  Levi didn’t shake her off this time; he leaned into her hand for half a second and Ymir was so startled she glanced up.  Levi’s blondie was standing next to an even taller blond man.  His cheeks were pink, and while it was cold out, Ymir was ready to snarl, “ _Get out_ ,” before she was willing to give this man the benefit of the doubt.

  
Levi beat her to the punch.  “What do you want?” he said quietly, lacking his weird, bitter way of flirting.  Ymir narrowed her eyes.

  
“Levi,” Blondie said.  He always said “Levi” that way, Ymir had noticed, as if he liked the taste of his name.  Maybe Blondie liked bitter things.  When she first started working here, she’d thought maybe she wanted someone to say _her_ name like that.  But seeing Levi’s knuckles go white made her think better of it.

  
“My usual,” he continued with a faint smile, then glanced at the enormous man next to him.  “Mike, what would you like?”

  
As it turned out, Mike was looking at her, and he seemed amused, though how Ymir was sure of this, she didn’t know, since his shaggy hair obscured a lot of his facial features.

  
“Mike?” Blondie asked again, gently.

  
Ymir bared her teeth at Mike and turned her attention back to Levi.  He looked like guitar strings wound too tight.  Gunmetal grey and ready to snap.

  
“I’ll pay for my own, thanks,” Mike said slowly, “but I’d like a black coffee.”

  
Levi’s ears burned scarlet when he glanced in Ymir’s direction and said, like she didn’t know the order already, “Hot chocolate with whip for Erwin, and uh— a black coffee.”  He was violent with the change and ignored the massive tip Erwin left.

 

  
“Nice name, asshole,” Ymir spat when she slapped the drinks down on the counter in front of Erwin.  His companion poked around the shop nearby.

  
“Ah, so you’re all charming here.  I thought Levi was fond of me.”  He sounded wistful.  Ymir frowned at him.  “Although,” he continued, “you’re different. You just give off the impression that you want to murder everyone you look at.”

  
“How’s that different?” she growled, curious despite herself. 

  
Erwin smiled.  “Levi saves his vitriol.”  His smiles were sad.

  
They didn’t stay that evening. 

  
Ymir made Levi a tea and took over on till.

 

 

College started the next day, which meant lots of preppy little snots ordering their preppy little drinks with voices too loud.  The tips were alright, though, and Ymir needed all the money she could get.

  
Her flannel shirt still smelled like gasoline when she turned up to her shift, stomach growling.  She liked it, though, a reminder why she shouldn’t toss drinks at the customers.  She muttered a greeting to the pretty redhead who worked the shift before her as they crossed paths in the doorway.

  
Levi’s eyes relaxed slightly at the corners when he saw her.  “You got shit on your face, brat,” he said and tossed her a granola bar.

  
“Fuck is this?” Ymir asked, scrubbing at her face.

  
“Food.  You’re a little shit when you’re hungry.”

  
“At least _I’m_ only a little shit when I’m hungry.”

  
Levi shrugged, but his eyes were bright and Ymir was getting used to him.  “You must always be hungry, then.”  As he turned to the espresso machine, he muttered, “Be discrete about eating it.”

  
He rolled his eyes when he caught Ymir waiting on customers with her mouth full.  

  
She grinned.  And turned back to the queue, swallowing hard in surprise around a mouthful of dry granola.  The girl before her looked like bottled up sunshine.  Very small rays of sunshine.  She was tiny and her smile was punctuated where her teeth bit at her lower lip.

  
“Anything tasty?” she asked.

  
“Nope,” Ymir croaked.

  
She sounded sincere when she said, “Oh, that’s a shame.” 

  
“Krista, we gotta get to class.”  A kid with wide eyes and a loud voice sidled up next to her.  “Can I order a coffee?” he said to Ymir.

  
Ymir took a deep breath.  She swallowed back several pointed insults that went down rough with her scraped up throat.  She glanced at Levi, who raised an eyebrow, and said, “Two-forty,” instead.  The kid spilled his change all over the counter, and Ymir counted to ten.  This time she stared at the ceiling.

  
When she looked back at the girl, trying not to get winded over the shocking blue of her eyes, she caught the girl biting back another smile, this one different from the first.  

  
“For you?” Ymir asked.

  
The girl, Krista she figured, nodded.  “Hot chocolate please.”

  
Ymir coughed out a garbled laugh.  “Of course, right.  Obviously.”

  
Krista tilted her head.  “Sorry?”

  
Ymir shook hers.  “Whip?”

  
Krista’s grin made dimples.  “Might as well, I figure.”

  
The kid had his change in order and announced it with a loud, “Got it!”

  
“Congratulations,” Ymir muttered.

  
Krista ducked her head to cover a snort.

 

When the clumsy kid dragged Krista out the door a few minutes later, Ymir leaned on the counter next to Levi, drained.  

  
“He was fucking annoying,” she said.

  
Levi looked at her sideways.  

  
“Don’t,” she said.

  
“Wasn’t gonna say a thing.”

  
  
Erwin came in alone that night.  This time he stayed, sitting at a table angled towards the bar, working at something on his laptop.  He smiled at Ymir when he got his drink, and she called him an asshole.  He seemed to agree with her.

  
Levi’s ears lose their flush until Erwin had left with a warm quiet, “Good night,” clearly meant more for Levi than Ymir.

  
Ymir looked at Levi sideways.

  
“Don’t.”

  
“Just sayin’, for an old guy, blondie looks okay in glasses.”  She nudged her hip towards Levi, knowing he’d get out of the way before they touched.  “Or maybe they just hide his wrinkles.”

  
Levi shuffled away from the swing of her hip.  “You never shut up, do you?”  

  
Ymir put her chin in her hands and didn’t say a thing.  She was thinking about highways and her bike and how pretty Krista’s perfect blond braids would look mussed up from a helmet.

 

  
The third time Krista got her hot chocolate, she blushed.  Ymir wished she had the excuse of a mouthful of granola when she swallowed hard this time.

  
“That’s um— It’s two-forty,” Ymir said, trying not to think that the pink suited her blue eyes, catching herself thinking instead how perfectly tiny Krista looked in her scarf and peacoat.  The scarf was pink.  Which made Ymir notice her blush all over again.  

  
Ymir was sweating by the time Krista frowned, “It was more yesterday.”

  
Ymir groaned.  “Are you really gonna argue with me?”

  
Krista flushed a bit darker.  She looked straight into Ymir’s eyes and flashed a sly little smile.  “Nope.”

  
Ymir had heart palpitations to go with her sweaty palms.

  
“You’re worse than I am,” Levi said.

  
“God, kill me now,” Ymir muttered.

 

  
  
She felt slightly better when Erwin came in alone again and stayed.

  
“Levi, he’s interested,” she said.

  
“Be quiet.”  Levi glanced at where Erwin typed away on his laptop.

  
“I’m serious.  He isn’t with Mustache.” 

  
The look Levi shot her was painfully open and hopeful; it nearly made her take a half step back.  Then he blinked and the shutters were back in place. 

  
“I said be quiet, brat.”

 

 

Erwin lingered at the counter that night at closing and Ymir tried to give them space to talk, slowly cleaning each one of the tables well enough that even Levi would probably be satisfied.

  
Levi’s voice was full of fire when he snipped goodbye to Erwin, and Erwin’s voice melted.  Ymir pretended she couldn’t hear them.  

  
She walked over to slump next to him when the store was empty.  Levi didn’t lean away.

  
“We sure do have a type, huh,” she grumbled.

  
Levi sighed and let Ymir lean her whole body against him for a few long moments.  Ymir thought it had been so long since she’d been hugged that her joints ached.

  
“Did he ask you out?”

  
“Be quiet, brat.”

  
Ymir thought maybe Erwin could do with a hot chocolate dumped on his pristine dress shirt tomorrow.  She rested her cheek on Levi’s hair and barked a pained laugh when he swatted her away.

  
  
That night, Ymir sat on the roof of her apartment complex until her nose and fingertips froze, and thought of her aching bones and if Krista even liked girls.

 

 

 

Ymir was running late to work on the day Erwin came early. 

  
She’d tinkered too long with her bike that morning, catching sight of the clock too late.  Her hair was a mess and she knew, without a doubt, that there was oil and dirt on her face.  

  
Levi looked like he was ready to take windex and a rag to her whole body but there was a queue, and Ymir forgot about her appearance in the rush and ebb of work.

  
Krista came in alone on the day Erwin came early and Ymir thought maybe wishing on all those stars had done her good after all.

  
“So, what’ll it be today?” Ymir asked, as if Krista had ever ordered anything except a hot chocolate.

  
“Hmm,” Krista said and tilted her head.  Krista had wicked eyes, Ymir realized, the kind that could take her apart at night on the roof of her apartment complex, one boneless sigh at a time.  “Dunno, maybe a hot chocolate?”  She gazed up at Ymir and grinned, crinkling her nose.  Then she laughed, letting out some of that bottled sunlight.  “Oh, you have—” she waved a hand at Ymir’s face.

  
Ymir tried not to feel filthy.  “Ah.  I got caught up.”

  
“It’s not bad,” Krista said.  “Just a bit here,” she brushed her fingertips along her own face.  Ymir’s bones ached.  

  
“Here,” Krista said softly.  She reached for Ymir’s face and Ymir had a moment to think, _I shouldn’t_ , before she bent and closed her eyes, resting her face in Krista’s palm.

  
Krista rubbed her cheekbones with her sleeve so gently Ymir had to refrain from pushing harder into her touch.  Krista made a soft noise.  “I like your freckles,” she said.  Ymir blinked her eyes open to find Krista’s gaze skittering around her face, from freckle to freckle.  “They’re like little stars.”  Krista’s thumb drew a line along her jaw, and then her voice slid low and wicked like her eyes. “Although with the dirt, maybe more like constellations,” she teased.

  
“What a cliché,” Ymir heard herself murmur.

  
There was a line of people staring at them and that was probably the only thing that saved her from kissing Krista’s palm.  

  
Levi cleared his throat.

  
Krista grinned.  “Maybe, but it’s true.”  She took her hands back.  “Extra whipped cream today, please.”

  
“Right,” Ymir said, dazed.  She was still bending down to Krista’s height she realized, and straightened quickly, scrubbing awkwardly at her neck.

  
Krista passed by the till on her way out.  “See you tomorrow?” she asked.

  
Ymir nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed, and watched her leave.  She touched her cheek, not nearly as gently as Krista had.  The man next in line coughed lightly.  Ymir blinked up to find herself staring at Erwin.  She glanced to check on Levi, who was frantically scrubbing the end of the bar.

  
“Ah,” Erwin said, like he understood everything.  “You save up something else, then.”  His mouth quirked.  “Soft suits you.  Spectacularly so, even with all the dirt.”

  
Ymir swallowed against the lump in her throat.  “Ask him,” she said.

  
Erwin smiled one of his sad smiles, but this one touched his eyes.  They crinkled at the corners and Ymir thought Erwin looked nice soft as well.  

  
“Ask. Him.”

  
Erwin looked at Levi for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.  “Ask her.”

  
“Krista,” Ymir said.

  
“Levi,” Erwin said.

  
“What,” Levi grumbled from behind Ymir.  He used that dull, bored voice he reserved just for Erwin.

  
Erwin flashed Ymir a genuine grin and she watched him take a large breath.  “I want something different today.”

  
“Good for you,” Levi said.  “Tell Ymir.”

  
Erwin shook his head.  “I would like your number.”

  
Ymir grinned and walked away.

 

 

Ymir was late for work and there was lipstick smudged on her mouth.  She didn’t realize it until Erwin came in for his hot chocolate.  

  
“I’d ask if you asked her, but it seems rather self-evident.”  He tapped his mouth.

  
“Oh shit,” Ymir muttered.  She glared at Levi.  “Has this been here all day?”

  
Levi shrug.  “Might’ve been.”

  
“You bastard.”

  
“I’ve caught you making out with her over the counter three times.  I figured you didn’t really mind a little lipstick.”

  
Ymir really didn’t, not when Krista traced all her freckles with her lips.

 

 


End file.
